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Detection of nanoplastics using SERS with silver nanoflowers
Summary
Scientists created a new sensor using tiny silver "nanoflowers" that can detect nanoplastics—plastic particles so small they're invisible to the eye—in water samples. This matters because nanoplastics are increasingly found in our food and water supply, and better detection tools like this one could help researchers understand how much of this plastic pollution we're actually exposed to, which is a key first step toward studying its health effects.
We developed a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor to detect nanoplastics in water, utilizing a photoreduction method to fabricate a 2D microdot array of silver nanoflowers. Silver nanoflowers were photofabricated by irradiating a chemical solution with a 515 nm continuous-wave (CW) laser via a 100× objective. The precursor solution consisted of 50 μL of deionized water, 20 μL of 24 mM silver nitrate (AgNO₃), 8 μL of 28 mM sodium citrate, and 1 μL of 8 mM L-ascorbic acid. Within 1 min of irradiation, 3D silver nanoflowers were selectively generated at the illuminated sites through photon-induced reduction. Using a micro-Raman system, we analyzed a dried droplet of 100-nm polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles (3.43 × 10¹¹ particles/mL) on the sensor after drying, clearly detecting the major characteristic PS peak at 1001 cm⁻¹ in Raman spectrum.